Wednesday, 28 November 2018

As if we do not have enough....

 ....to test and try in our daily lives, we have our own imaginations to contend with. These ensure that we can never fully relax. Always, there is something to be nervous of. No matter what the scenario, we are capable of conjuring up negative associations. Or of seeing within it a pessimistic possibility.



Worse, our imagination will often insist that it is not even talking to us - that it is, in fact, the voice of common sense.






Sleep and indolence are not cousins of a good harvest.   (Nigerian Proverb)

You and I both know....

....that the sun is our source of light and warmth. So far, so good.  Now imagine a team of energy efficiency experts, sitting around to consider a proposal to invent the Sun. They would never give a green light to a project like this. How crazy to place this source more than 93 million miles away from its intended target.

Image result for sunlight

Yet, sometimes, conventional wisdom simply doesn't represent the most appropriate way to view a situation.



True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves, 
and the world around us.     (Socrates)





Tuesday, 27 November 2018

Ultimately, it's up to you....





So often it's just a matter....

.....of degree, isn't it? One mouthful may be tantalising, two may be satisfying, three could be overdoing it and four, would be a sure-fire recipe for indigestion. We cannot always see how to draw the line... or where. Often, it seems, the only way to find out when enough is enough, is to carry on until we've had too much, and then try to edge back a bit.



That's an easier process than many of us fear. We should never assume that a passing sense of discomfort will become a permanent disability.


We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.  (Emile M Cioran)


Thursday, 15 November 2018

Please give some thought....

....to two hypothetical people.  One buys a lottery ticket on a whim and wins a couple of million pounds.  The other goes out, trips over and breaks an ankle.  Now, of the two, which  is more fortunate?  The answer of course, is, 'We don't know'. We don't have enough information.
Maybe the lottery winner has a terminally ill child, and they'd rather witness a complete recovery than have all the money in the world. Maybe the one with the broken ankle got it by tripping up and falling down a hole. Maybe they were incredibly lucky that they didn't break their neck.




We ought to be similarly wise when assessing our own luck.














When we are motivated by wisdom and compassion, 
the results of our actions benefit everyone.

Do you shop on-line a lot?....

....Pretty easy to do, isn't it?  Another killer of social interaction though, not to mention the death kneel of the High Street. 
Anyway, you probably know that you can buy most things over the internet these days. Strangely, though, it is still not possible to purchase items or services designed to leave you feeling fed up. Why? Because such things are freely available and in plentiful supply. You don't even have to go out and get them. Give them half a chance and they will deliver themselves to your door.


You may be shown many offers for a selection of reasons to feel anxious, angry, agitated or aggrieved. You are perfectly entitled, though, to reject them all.





Live your life and forget your age. 
Do not regret getting older, it is a privilege denied to many.











Tuesday, 13 November 2018

We all need to....

....wrap ourselves in comfort blankets from time to time. We listen to our favourite songs, eat familiar foods, or read authors whose style we find generally reassuring. Life does what it can, though, to tempt us out into the great unknown. It will let us rest for a while in a haven of our own creation - and it knows that we will never grow if we are never challenged.


There may be some factors that you very much wish were different. The way to change them, is to start doing things differently.



No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person's 
enemies say about him. (Napoleon Hill)

Monday, 12 November 2018

Whenever we focus....

....too intently on our fears, we create little dips in the otherwise flat, smooth, plane of our subconscious. Then, when the rain of some new worry starts to fall into our lives, it gathers in those gullies. To be as brave as we really need to be, we must try to keep our minds free from those problematic puddles.  There is rarely a need to let an old source of trouble to become the trigger for a new one. 




Try to look at your situation with fresh eyes and you will see there is really no reason to let the past spoil the future.


True life is lived when tiny changes occur   (Tolstoy)

Thursday, 8 November 2018

Theory and practice are not....

...so much two sides of one coin as two sides of one tug-o-war. Superficially, the relationship can seem civil and mutually supportive, but it soon becomes clear that there are deep, irreconcilable differences. Some people feel sorry for theory. They assume that it must always lose out in the end. Actually though, theory is seductive, it can win over supporters who will resolutely reject reality - even when it is staring them in the face.







Sometimes we have to work out which side people are on.








In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.  (Yogi Berra)

Rumour has it.....

....that 'they' can sometimes be right.  This isn't one such time -

They say it doesn't matter what you choose, as long as you choose it wholeheartedly. Well, 'they' are totally wrong here.  They, whoever 'they' are, are having a laugh. They are confusing millions around the globe.


First of all, of course it matters - it matters greatly. Secondly, even if you are in a situation where for some reason it does not really matter, there is no such thing as a wholehearted choice. Only robots are without doubt. Humans always retain a degree of doubt, even when they are right.


It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.  (Andre Gide)



Wednesday, 7 November 2018

I went to see the soldiers....


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I went to see the soldiers, row on row on row, 
And wondered about each so still, their badges all on show. 
What brought them here, what life before 
Was like for each of them? What made them angry, laugh, or cry, 
These soldiers, boys and men. 
Some so young, some older still, a bond more close than brothers 
These men have earned and shared a love, that's not like any others 
They trained as one, they fought as one 
They shared their last together 
That bond endures, that love is true 
And will be, now and ever. 
I could not know, how could I guess, what choices each had made, 
Of how they came to soldiering, what part each one had played? 
But here they are and here they'll stay, 
Each one silent and in place, 
Their headstones line up row on row 
They guard this hallowed place.

Small children like....

....to hear the same bedtime story, night in, night out. It makes them feel comforted and reassured. (For my son it was the 3 Little Pigs to the point that I could recite it, word perfect, in my sleep!)  There is a small child somewhere, within us all, so this may be why, as adults, we often act out the same old dramas, time and time again. Unconsciously we are seeking security and stability.


It doesn't do us much good, though, if the roles we end up playing are counter-productive.



Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.   (Leo Buscaglia)


Tuesday, 6 November 2018

You don't have to be....

....a mechanic to know how to drive a car.  Nor is it a prerequisite for any great artist to be an expert in the chemical composition of paint. There may be many forces and factors that are difficult to understand in our lives, but that doesn't mean that we can't cope admirably and gracefully with them. 



We just have to make the most of what we've got. And when life gives us an opportunity to understand a little more, we should seize it, of course.











Remember, you cannot hold bliss in your fist. You can hold bliss only in your open hand.    (Osho)

A Soldier’s Cemetery....

Behind that long and lonely trenched line
To which men come and go, where brave men die,
There is a yet unmarked and unknown shrine,
A broken plot, a soldier’s cemetery.
There lie the flower of youth, the men who scorn’d
To live (so died) when languished Liberty:
Across their graves flowerless and unadorned
Still scream the shells of each artillery.
When war shall cease this lonely unknown spot
Of many a pilgrimage will be the end,
And flowers will shine in this now barren plot
And fame upon it through the years descend:
But many a heart upon each simple cross
Will hang the grief, the memory of its loss.


Image result for poppy


John William Streets (killed and missing in action on 1st July 1916 aged 31)